By Katie Martlew
After almost seven years of marriage, Oscar winning actress Kate Winslet and her acclaimed director hubby Sam Mendes have decided to end their marriage.
“Kate and Sam are saddened to announce that they separated earlier this year”, their lawyer Keith Schillings announced today in an official statement.
“The split is entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement. Both parties are fully committed to the future joint parenting of their children. They ask that the media respect their privacy.” Schillings continued.
They are parents to six-year-old Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes, while 34-year-old Winslet is also mum to nine-year-old Mia Honey, from her first marriage to assistant director Jim Threapleton.
The couple married in the West Indies in 2003, following a two-year romance that began after 44-year-old Mendes approached Winslet to star in two stage productions with his Domnar Wharehouse theatre company in London (which she turned down).
The pair were every bit the Hollywood power couple, with both Kate and Mendes glorified Oscar winners; he won an Oscar for his debut film American Beauty, while she won an Oscar for Best Actress last year for her performance in The Reader.
Mendes directed his wife in the 2008 film Revolutionary Road for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress. At the time Kate said working together was both “a blessing and an added pressure”. While Mendes said that directing his wife had being one of “the best experiences of his life” although mentioned that while Kate liked to discuss the movie “24-hours a day”, he preferred to “do something else like watch a baseball game” at night after the working day was finished.
